Secret behind Helena Bonham Carter's Harry Potter wardrobe and why she ‘hated playing ingenues'
More than a collection of clothes — rack after rack of gothic Vivienne Westwood gowns, punk rock garb and whimsical Alannah Hill frocks (which she picked up while shooting Till Human Voices Wake Us in Melbourne 20 years ago) – it is also a time capsule of her impressive four-decade screen career.
'I have a lot of costume,' she tells Stellar. 'I keep some and also I provide some too, actually.'
To play Margaret in the new romantic film Four Letters of Love, Bonham Carter reached into her bountiful collection of aprons and shoes. 'I love comfort,' she says.
'As I grow older, definitely, the shoe is crucial. They should be flat and lace ups.
'And the apron is also a great thing. Even the half apron can make you feel sort of armoured. I feel like an apron gives you a bit of a solidity – to keep the tum in, quite frankly.'
It wasn't just the clothing that offered security for Bonham Carter on Four Letters of Love. A 'master chatter,' co-star Gabriel Byrne kept Bonham Carter endlessly entertained and gave her a confidence boost with his seal of approval for her Irish brogue. 'Everyone was Irish, and we were in Ireland so it was like: spot the odd one out,' she says with a laugh of being the lone English woman on set.
'At the beginning, I felt totally self-conscious, but Gabriel pretty quickly said: 'Oh, you're one of us.' So that was a complete thrill, to be told, 'You're Irish.' I have always felt very at home in that accent, and maybe there's a previous life [element to it]. It's so warm. It's like coming home.'
Adapted from Niall William's novel, Four Letters of Love is about the forces that conspire to keep two soulmates apart. Gifted the book in the 1990s by her mum, Bonham Carter says that as a self-described 'hopeless romantic', the story resonated with her.
'I do feel like things are fated,' she says of the concept of true love. 'Or that there's an instinct, or there's a consciousness, or … a fabric of life – if we listen to our intuition, which a lot of people don't.
'I don't think there's necessarily a predestined 'one' person for someone. You can have different someones for different times of your life.'
As Margaret, Bonham Carter goes to extreme lengths to sabotage her daughter's romance. In real life, she wouldn't dare interfere in her teenage daughter Nell's relationship.
'Luckily, she's got a great boyfriend, and they're very happy,' Bonham Carter says of her youngest child with ex-husband director Tim Burton. (The couple also share a son, Billy.) 'And I couldn't have chosen a better one [for her]. So, no. She's very herself. She's very independent and always has been.'
The same could be said for Bonham Carter, who has never conformed to Hollywood's idea of red-carpet glamour.
'I just wear what I want,' she reasons. 'Sure, I have been criticised, but it doesn't matter, does it? It's like, whatever. If you've got the chance to dress up, that's so fun. A lot of us don't have the occasions to dress up and wear stuff. I have got a phenomenal amount of clothes. I like dressing up, and I like putting clothes together.'
Listen to a new episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About, below:
Bonham Carter is proud to watch Nell follow her lead and smiles as she explains, 'It is really fun to see her take pleasure in clothes, and the transformative effect of clothes and how it can change your mood and just work on your imagination.'
It was Bonham Carter's imagination that breathed manic life into Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films. 'When I got it, there wasn't much of [her there] in the original writing. I definitely came up with a look,' she says, adding that the costume design department did plenty of heavy lifting.
'The whole childlike element to Bellatrix was definitely me.'
Mildly perplexed why the franchise needs to be rebooted (a TV series due to air in 2027 began filming last week), Bonham Carter admits that she is nonetheless intrigued to see what a new actress – yet to be cast – will bring to the role of Bellatrix.
'So whoever takes it, they can have as much fun as me,' she says. 'But I presume it will go off in a different direction, which will be fun to watch.'
Listen to a new episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About, below:
Bellatrix aside, Bonham Carter – who will turn 60 next May – argues that her best roles are still ahead.
'I've always been interested in character parts and parts that are further away from myself. So in a way, this is my era, I feel. I was extremely uncomfortable playing younger ingenues,' explains the actor, whose first major screen role was, indeed, as a young woman in love in the 1985 Merchant-Ivory film classic A Room With A View.
'I felt those were kind of boring. It's more fun playing the supporting character parts.'
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bonham Carter is drawn to slightly unhinged characters, from Fight Club's Marla Singer to the Red Queen in Burton's remake of Alice in Wonderland. Even Cinderella's Fairy Godmother was memorably madcap in her hands.
Bonham Carter puts this down to a desire to better understand the extremes of human behaviour. 'My mum was a psychotherapist, who deals with people's pathology,' she says. 'And basically, I do the same. I'm drawn to pathology and I like sick people, because part of the fun of it is, how? How did they end up being this sick, you know?
'And the interesting thing is, there's a reason why they're bonkers. The important thing is not to alienate the sick. We're all human.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Influencers stun in snow photos during Cetaphil Après brand trip
Many poses were pulled, including this one from Melbourne socialite Rozalia Russian. Picture: Supplied Of course, a picturesque lunch was had after a hard morning on the slopes. Picture: Supplied There were tonnes of branded photo ops. Picture: Supplied And naturally, free-flowing wine. Picture: Supplied 'Too cold to care, too hot to touch.' Picture: Supplied 'Looks amazing.' Picture: Supplied Fans declared these two besties, 'Angel faces'. Picture: Supplied Everyone had a ball on the snow trip. Picture: Supplied No one suffered bad skin from the snow, a common experience from the cold and the light reflecting off the white snow. Picture: Supplied 'Gorgeous.' Picture: Supplied The inflencers went all out at night-time too, including Hembrow who dressed like a 'snow princess' one evening. Picture: Supplied Kate Waterhouse opted for a brown gown with matching (faux?) fur. Picture: Supplied Toasted marshmellows with Cetaphil branding. Picture: Supplied 'I thought you went to the sun not the snow???' commented one fan. Picture: Supplied She posed in a chocolate brown dress and fluffy coat as the sun went down. Picture: Supplied 'A winter skin retreat, every detail was perfection. I love youuu @cetaphilaustralia & my skin does too' she captioned one of her photos. Picture: Supplied
ABC News
9 hours ago
- ABC News
Together is a horrifying look at co-dependency. It's based on the director's relationship
Australian director and writer Michael Shanks has the disembodied torso of Hollywood A-lister Dave Franco hanging on his study wall. It's a prosthetic, of course, from Shanks's upcoming film, Together, which stars Franco and his real-life wife, Alison Brie, as a couple whose relationship is on the rocks. "I found it in storage after the film wrapped," Shanks says. "He was wrapped in plastic, like Laura Palmer. I was like, 'No, he's got to be on my wall.'" In part, that could be because Together has proven to be a breakout moment for the Melbourne local. Shanks has spent more than a decade building a profile as a writer, director and special effects artist. He's racked up millions of YouTube views on his cinematic parodies, landed a script on the coveted Black List (Hollywood's list of best unproduced screenplays), and his award-winning short film, Rebooted, is adorned with more laurel leaves than a forest. But Together has surpassed all of that. When his body-horror/romance/comedy premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January, it ignited a bidding war that even Shanks — who wrote, directed and created most of the film's jaw-dropping special effects — didn't see coming. "We had been in this room, just myself and an editor and the editing assistant, and we made this little movie, and we thought it was pretty good," he says. "Then suddenly I'm in Utah for some reason, at Sundance, and I have to introduce a film in front of an audience of 2,000 people. "At the afterparty, different studio people were saying, 'Hi, we'd like to buy the film.' That was really special." Together eventually sold to Neon, the US distributor behind Oscars Best Picture winners Anora and Parasite, for $US17 million ($26 million). It was one of the richest deals in the festival's history. But for Shanks, the marvel is in the fact that his fusion film was made at all. Together could masquerade as a regular romantic dramedy, if not for the evocative promotional materials featuring fused body parts, hinting at a much more sinister story. The film opens on aspiring, but aging musician Tim (Franco) and his dedicated long-term partner Millie (Brie) moving out of the city so she can take up a new teaching position. There's still flickering love between the pair but it's struggling to breathe underneath the tense weight of shared history. Things take a turn for the horrific after a bushwalk sees Tim and Millie tumble into a mysterious cave with an ominously alluring water source. From this point the film transforms into shriek-inducing terror, where hypothetical fears about co-dependant relationships become sickeningly real. And it's all based on Shanks's relationship with his partner of 16 years, Louie. "When I first told her the idea, she was a little wary," Shanks laughs. "She said something like, 'I'm a little upset that you're writing it but you should write it.'" She quickly became Shanks's sounding board, conceptualising some of the film's most evocative scenes (one of which involves a giant, prosthetic penis) during the writing process. "I would sometimes knock on our home office and ask, 'Hey, you know, that argument we had a couple of years ago where you called me a piece of shit? What did I call you back?'" he says. While Shanks says his relationship has a firm foundation, he's prepared for his film to potentially break up those on rockier ones. In fact, it might have, already. "So many people have told me this reminded them of a previous relationship, or current relationship. There's a universality to it," Shanks says. "It's scary to share a life with somebody, and hopefully you can push through and find something lovely, or you are brave enough to recognise that splitting apart is an OK thing to do." There's a strong family feel to Together. Shanks cast his partner and friends as extras in party scenes, as well as weaving references to his siblings' names into the film. "All these people have been supporting me to chase this impossible filmmaking dream for over a decade, so it's been really lovely to bring them along for the ride," Shanks says. And despite the American-accented leads, Together was filmed in Melbourne, about 15 minutes from Shanks's home. The local crew rallied around Franco and Brie, who not only supplied brilliant dramatic performances, but put their bodies on the line to pull off the script's extreme physical demands. "A stunt performer was doing something of Alison's, and [Alison] was like, 'That's not hard enough. I'll do it.' Dave was climbing ropes that we didn't ask him to do because it was better for the performance," Shanks says. "They have a bruise journal from the film. We tortured them every day, and they still showed up for work the next day with a smile." Shanks has long dreamed of seeing his work on billboards, but becoming an international name has brought both positives and negatives. Back in May, while still riding the Sundance high, Together was hit with a US copyright lawsuit from production studio StudioFest which claimed the film ripped off ideas from Patrick Phelan's 2023 black comedy, Better Half. In response, Shanks released a public statement asserting not only how painfully personal Together is to him, but also that he registered his script to the Writers Guild of America in 2019 — three years before Shanks was connected with Franco, and a year before StudioFest's filings claim Phelan's script was sent to Franco and Brie's representatives. "To now be accused of stealing this story — one based on my own lived experience, one I've developed over the course of several years — is devastating and has taken a heavy toll," his statement read. Shanks told ABC Entertainment that being a public figure has taken some adjustment. "Since the film has made headlines for all sorts of reasons, I have become somebody that is being commented on," he says. "I've been so lucky to travel with this film. I went to a film festival in Mexico, and people were telling me how much they love the movie. That's been so sweet. Together is riding high on a wave of internationally successful Australian horror productions from Colin and Cameron Cairnes's Late Night With The Devil, to Michael and Danny Philippou's latest screamer, Bring Her Back. However, these productions — as well as Shanks's — had to venture outside the country to secure the support needed to bring them to life. Shanks says it's essential the local industry invests in young, upcoming talent. "Me and Michael and Danny [Philippou], we came from a time where we had to prove our storytelling abilities to an international audience to get opportunities in the local industry," he says. "I'd love for there to be pathways for younger filmmakers to tell stories they're passionate about, rather than the generation above, that are still kind of locked in some of those positions. "Hearing stories from younger people and from people of more economically diverse backgrounds, that's the stuff that I'd be really keen to see." Together is in cinemas now.
News.com.au
15 hours ago
- News.com.au
Bombshell book claims Jeffrey Epstein called Prince Andrew a ‘serial sex addict'
Prince Andrew has been branded a 'serial sex addict' in a bombshell new book — with Jeffrey Epstein reportedly claiming the Duke of York was even kinkier than him. The shocking allegations appear in ' Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York ', which the British royal reportedly tried to block, The Sun reports. According to the Daily Mail, late pedophile financier Epstein is quoted in the book as saying: 'We are both serial sex addicts. 'From the reports I've got back from the women we've shared, he's the most perverted animal in the bedroom. 'He likes to engage in stuff that's even kinky to me – and I'm the king of kink!' The explosive revelations come alongside fresh allegations about Andrew's conduct on royal tours. A Reuters correspondent reported that, during the King of Thailand's diamond jubilee celebrations in 2006, more than 40 women were taken to Andrew's Bangkok hotel room. 'Often, as soon as one left, another would arrive,' the reporter said. Hotel staff were reportedly stunned that 'more than 10 a day' were going to the Duke's suite. The exposé portrays the 64-year-old royal as a man consumed by sex, with claims from an investigative journalist that he has bedded over a thousand women, ranging from porn stars and actresses to palace staff and bartenders. One 20-year-old model, who says she twice slept with Andrew before being whisked to Mustique, recalled: 'He wanted me to engage in kinky sexual activity. 'He had no boundaries. He told me he had an open marriage arrangement with his wife. 'After returning to London, I never heard from him again. I felt like he used me for a few days, so he could live his wildest fantasies.' Masseuse Emma Gruenbaum, who worked on him at Royal Lodge, alleged Andrew was a 'constant sex pest,' insisting on being naked for massages and making crude remarks. 'That's just not normal behaviour for a professional sports therapy session,' she said. The book also recounts disturbing tales from palace insiders. One former staff member claimed: 'When I started, I was warned to stay away from him. 'He would sometimes enter the staff quarters. 'It seemed everyone was aware of his behaviour, but little was done about it.' From his 'Randy Andy' schoolboy reputation to being accused of bullying aides and humiliating women at society events, Andrew is painted as both sex-obsessed and arrogant. Aides alleged he once had an employee moved because of a mole on his face, while another was sidelined for wearing a nylon tie. The York family reportedly tried to block the book, warning contacts not to co-operate and enlisting the Foreign Office to discourage diplomats from speaking. Despite legal threats, the exposé has gone to print — leaving Andrew once again at the centre of a scandal. It comes as a top lawyer warned that Andrew may not be in the clear despite the FBI dropping its probe into his ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Spencer Kuvin, who has represented five of Epstein's alleged victims, said the Duke of York, 65, still has reason to worry after six years of avoiding travel abroad for fear of arrest. 'I still don't think Andrew can sleep soundly,' Mr Kuvin said. 'With the quick change of administration or new leadership at the Department of Justice, the investigation could be reopened or continued. 'Andrew needs to visit the US to answer questions from the FBI. Avoiding this merely makes people think he's guilty.' Andrew has always denied claims by Virginia Giuffre that he abused her when she was 17, insisting he never saw or suspected Epstein's crimes. Giuffre died in Australia in April at the age of 41. There is no statute of limitations for federal sex crimes in the US, meaning allegations could be revived at any time. Andrew has not set foot in America since meeting Epstein in New York in 2010.
